1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the transmission of data in cable television network systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for rapidly determining whether a link in a network system utilizing cable modems is operational regardless of a modem's registration status.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Since the late 1980's the cable TV industry has been upgrading its signal distribution and transmission infrastructure. In many cable television markets, the infrastructure and topology of cable systems now include fiber optics as part of its signal transmission component. The use of fiber optics has accelerated the pace at which the cable industry has taken advantage of the inherent two-way communication capability of cable systems. The cable industry is now poised to develop reliable and efficient two-way transmission of digital data over its cable lines at speeds orders of magnitude faster than those available through telephone lines, thereby allowing its subscribers to access digital data for uses ranging from Internet access to cable communting. While cable TV systems have always had the ability to send data downstream, i.e., from a cable TV hub, described below, to cable modems in people's homes, cable TV systems can now send data upstream, i.e. from individual cable modems to a hub. This new upstream data transmission capability enabled cable companies to use set-top cable boxes and provided subscribers with “pay-per-view” functionality, i.e. a service allowing subscribers to send a signal to the cable system indicating that they want to see a certain program.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a two-way hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) cable system including cable modems and a network management station. The main distribution component of an HFC cable system is a primary (or secondary) hub 102 (also referred to as a “headend”) which can typically service about 40,000 subscribers or end-users. Hub 102 contains several components of which two, relevant to this discussion, are shown in FIG. 1. One component is a cable modem termination system or, CMTS, 104 needed when transmitting data (sending it downstream to users) and receiving data (receiving upstream data originating from users) using cable modems, shown as boxes 106, 108, 110, and 112. Another component is a fiber transceiver 114 used to convert electrical signals to optical signals for transmission over a fiber optic cable 116. Fiber optic cable 116 can typically run for as long as 100 km and is used to carry data (in one direction) for most of the distance between hub 102 to a neighborhood cable TV plant 117. More specifically, fiber optic cable 116 is a pair of cables—each one carrying data in one direction. When the data reaches a particular neighborhood cable TV plant 117, a fiber node 118 converts the data so that it can be transmitted as electrical signals over a conventional coaxial cable 120, also referred to as a trunk line. Hub 102 can typically support up to 80 fiber nodes and each fiber node can support up to 500 or more subscribers. Thus, there are normally multiple fiber optic cables emanating from hub 102 to an equal number of fiber nodes. In addition, the number of subscribers as well as fiber capacity is currently increasing due to dense wave-division multiplexing technology. DWDM is a technique for transmitting on more than one wavelength of light on the same fiber.
The primary functions of CMTS 104 are (1) interfacing to a two-way data communications network; (2) providing appropriate media access control or MAC level packet headers (described below) for data on the RF interface of a cable system; and (3) modulating and demodulating the data to and from the cable system.
Cable TV (CTV) taps 122 and 124 are used to distribute a data signal to individual cable modems 106 and 110 (from CTV tap 124) and modems 108 and 1122 (from CTV tap 122). Two-way cable TV amplifiers 126 and 128 are used to amplify signals as they are carried over coaxial cable 120. Data can be received by the cable modems shown (each CTV tap can have output cables servicing multiple cable modems) and transmitted back to hub 102. In cable systems, digital data is carried over radio frequency (RF) carrier signals. Cable modems are devices that employ modulation for transmission on a broadband media and demodulation to recover digital data from a modulated RF carrier which it receives. This modulation/demodulation is done at two points: by a cable modem at the subscriber's home and by CMTS 104 located at hub 102. If CMTS 104 receives digital data, for example from the Internet, it converts the digital data to a modulated RF signal which is carried over the fiber and coaxial lines to the subscriber premises. A cable modem then demodulates the RF signal and feeds the digital data to a computer (not shown). On the return path, the operations are reversed. The digital data is fed to the cable modem which converts it to a modulated RF signal. Once CMTS 104 receives the RF signal, it demodulates it and transmits the digital data to an external source.
Data packets are addressed to specific modems or to a hub (if sent upstream) by a MAC layer 103 in CMTS 104 at hub 102 (there is also a MAC addressing component, not shown, in the cable modems that encapsulate data with a header containing the address of the hub when data is being sent upstream). CMTS 104 has a physical layer 132 that is partly responsible for keeping a list of modem addresses and encapsulating data with appropriate address of its destination. MAC layer 130 receives data packets from a Data Network Interface (not shown) in hub 102. The main purpose of MAC layer 130 is to encapsulate a data packet within a MAC header according to The DOCSIS standard for transmission of data. DOCSIS is an interim standard establishing the protocol for two-way communication of digital data on cable systems defined and adopted by a consortium of industry groups, and is well known in the field of cable modem data communication. MAC layer 130 contains the necessary logic to encapsulate data with the appropriate MAC addresses of the cable modems on the system. Each cable modem on the system has its own MAC address.
Whenever a new cable modem is installed, its address must be registered with MAC layer 130. The MAC address is necessary to distinguish data going from the cable modems since all modems share a common upstream path, and so that CMTS 104 knows where to send data. Thus, data packets, regardless of format, must be mapped to a particular MAC address. MAC layer 130 is also responsible for sending out polling messages as part of the link protocol between the CMTS and the cable modems that is necessary to maintain a communication connection between the two. In addition, cable modems transmit range request (RNG-REQ) messages to be headend as part of the link protocol between the CMTS and the cable modems.
In conventional cable television network systems, polling messages used as part of the link protocol between the CMTS and the cable modems necessary to maintain a communication connection between the two are sent between Network layers of the CMTS and the CABLE MODEM. That is, polling is conducted as a Network (or IP) layer protocol, for example the ICMP echo protocol utilizing an ICMP ping process. In order for the CMTS to communicate with a cable modem at the Network level, the modem's IP address must be known. IP addresses are assigned to cable modems as part of a registration process, typically performed when a cable TV subscriber opens an account. This has the disadvantage that polling communication between a CMTS and a cable modem may not be possible before a cable modem is registered. Thus, the integrity of a cable network system may not be determined unless all of its cable modems have been registered.
Further, conventional Network layer polling protocols are typically limited to a regular transmission schedule. This is due to the fact that time division multiplexing (TDM) is used in upstream communication between cable modems and the CMTS in a cable system. The CMTS provides a time slot map for TDM to the cable modes. One slot in the TDM is a “station maintenance” time slot (SMTS). Each cable modem receives at least one SMTS every 30 seconds. When a cable modem receives a SMTS it must transmit a RNG-REQ message which is used by the CMTS in order to determine if the cable modem is operational and to maintain the link to that cable modem. If the cable modem does not respond to the SMTS after 16 tries the cable modem is assumed to be off. This arrangement limits the timing of feedback that may be obtained from cable modems in a cable system. Another restriction in the protocol is that the cable modem must receive an opportunity to transmit on the upstream within 30 seconds otherwise the modem itself disconnects. Generally, the same constraints of TDM apply to the ping DOCSIS protocol utilized for communication between the CMTS MAC layer and the cable modem MAC layer.
Because of the increasing usefulness of cable modems for transmitting data over existing cable TV systems, cable modems are proliferating. As they become more prevalent, the burden of maintaining a cable TV plant having a network of cable modems increases. Specifically, the problem of tracking down and isolating a problematic device or group of devices has become increasingly difficult.
Therefore, it would be desirable for a CMTS to be able to poll cable modems in a cable TV network system by issuing a network command at any tme in order to determine whether a link in a network system utilizing cable modems is operational, regardless of the registration status of or the state of software in the modems in the network. It would further be desirable if the polling protocol were able to provide information regarding the nature and location of any problems that prevent polling communication between a CMTS and a cable modem.